Formatting Support: Word 2008

Transcription

1 Guidelines for Preparing Electronic Theses, Dissertations, and Doctoral Essays This document contains instructions for formatting conformant Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of theses to our database. Please see the companion document Organization, Formatting, and PDF Conversion Guidelines for Theses, Dissertations, and Doctoral/Lecture Essays published by the Graduate School for instructions on document pagination, spacing, and other styling issues, as well as Graduate School policies regarding the editorial and publication process. If at any time, you need help with the formatting or conversion of your thesis/dissertation, please contact the ETD Formatting Support Group at or visit the Digital Media Lab in the Richter Library. Contents Best Practices... 2 Use the Same Software and Computer While Writing... 2 Working with Multimedia Files... 2 Converting From Microsoft Word 2008 to a PDF (Macintosh Only)... 3 Step 1: Convert your Word file into a PDF Step 2: Combining Multiple PDF Files (Optional)... 3 Step 3: THE MOST IMPORTANT: Double-check your conversion Recommended File Formats... 5 Image Files... 5 Audio Files... 5 Video... 5 Spreadsheets and Databases... 5 Program Code... 5 Page 1

2 Best Practices In order to ensure that the text in the PDF version of theses or dissertations will look the same on all machines today and in the future, it is required that you submit PDF documents containing copies of the fonts you have used. In technical terms, this is referred to as embedding fonts. As per the Graduate School's Formatting Guidelines, only Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New are considered acceptable fonts, with the main text sized at 12-point. While generating PDF files is easy to do, please pay close attention to the instructions on embedding fonts. Use the Same Software and Computer While Writing Students may create conformant PDF documents using Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, or Linux operating systems. However, because the text data in documents often renders differently in different versions of the same software, we strongly recommend that students generate their final PDF documents using the same computer and software they used to author their original document. All of the text in a Microsoft Word 2003 document may not display correctly when opened in Microsoft Word 2007, and vice-versa. Working with Multimedia Files Because it is possible that print copies of student theses are provided to students and their advisor, you are encouraged to think of your theses/dissertations as electronic documents which will also be printed. For this reason, if your thesis or dissertation contains non-printable multimedia files, DO NOT embed them within the PDF. You may upload these separately in addition to the dissertation itself, to make them available in the electronic database. A list of acceptable multimedia files is found on page 5. Tips: 1 We strongly recommend that students generate their final PDF documents using the same computer and software they used to author their original document. 2 If your thesis or dissertation contains nonprintable multimedia files, DO NOT embed them within the PDF. 3 For help creating your multimedia supplemental files, please visit the Digital Media Lab in the Richter Library Page 2

3 Converting From Microsoft Word 2008 to a PDF (Macintosh Only) Microsoft Word on Apple Macintosh computers comes with a native Export to PDF utility which embeds fonts by default. Step 1: Convert your Word file into a PDF. 1. From the File menu, choose Print. 2. Click PDF in the bottom left, then Save as PDF. 3. Type your thesis name according to the file naming convention, and click Save. If your thesis consists of multiple files, you will need to merge the exported PDF chapters into a single document using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Otherwise, skip to Step 3. Step 2: Combining Multiple PDF Files (Optional) 1. In Adobe Acrobat Professional, click File then Create PDF and Merge Files into a Single PDF. 2. In the dialog box, click Add Files, Add Files again, and then browse to the documents. 3. Select the document and click Add Files. Repeat this step until all your documents are listed in the Combine Files dialog box. a. You can also shift-select or ctrl-select multiple documents in the browse window. 4. The documents are listed by filename in the order they were selected. You can change the order by highlighting the file and clicking the Move Up or Move Down buttons on the bottom of the dialog box. 5. Once you have the files in the order you want them to appear in the PDF, click Combine Files. 6. Wait for Acrobat to perform its conversion. This can take several minutes for large documents. 7. Name your electronic thesis file according to the file naming convention and click Save. 8. Check that your fonts are embedded and subset: a. Go to File, then Properties. b. Click on the Fonts tab. c. Next to each font listed, the words Embedded Subset should appear. Example of correctly Embedded Subset font in a converted PDF. Save your PDF onto an external drive or it to yourself. Always keep a backup copy of all updated Word documents as well. Page 3

4 Step 3: THE MOST IMPORTANT: Double-check your conversion. Once your PDF has been created, it is important that you thoroughly check your thesis/dissertation for any inconsistencies. Make sure that all pages are numbered correctly. Make sure that all tables and figures are correct. Make sure that all equations or symbols that were used converted properly. If you have any problems with the conversion, please contact the ETD Formatting Support Group at Page 4

5 Recommended File Formats This is a short list of recommended file formats for the Supplemental Materials. If you are not sure how to create these formats or want more information about your specific project, please contact Dissertation Formatting Support at dfs@miami.edu. Image Files BMP (bitmap image file) PNG (Portable Network Graphics Format) TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) JP2 (Joint Photographic Experts Group 2000) Audio Files MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) WAV (Waveform) MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Video MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) Spreadsheets and Databases TXT (Plain Text) CSV (Comma-Separated Values) Students are recommended to export spreadsheets and databases to a tab-delimited or commaseparated text file. When possible, students are encouraged to encode data sets in text files in the UTF- 8 or UTF-16 Unicode character encoding. Program Code Students may upload uncompiled codes in the programming language(s) of their choice. Instructions for running submitted programs may be included in the Dissertation itself, in a separate README file, or both. Page 5